Fan Fiction / Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Marines Journey - The SHODAN crisis ❯ Chapter 15: Fear shown and a transmission from hell ( Chapter 16 )

The Marine's Journey

Chap. 15 - Fear shown and a transmission from hell.

By: Piccard

Here I am again, chapter 15 rears it's head, and I feel as if I keep forcing myself into dead locks when I think of new chapters, yet somehow I manage to come up with new ideas. I guess it's a part of being new.

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Disclaimer: Do the numbers 1 and 9 remind you of anything? I own characters you don't know and I can't think of anything witty.

You have a target? This fic!

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Of course, SHODAN at this time had just received word that her hybrids had been defeated, but she didn't consider it that big a loss. "It was enough, he knows who I am and that I'm here. It's only a question of time before we come face to face." Was all she said as Xerxes was starting to prepare a lab for the creation of what he considered SHODAN's worst project yet. "If she expects this to work, she needs a maintenance check." He thought as he loaded dark's medical parameters into storage and isolated the emeralds power range.

SHODAN meanwhile, was talking to several beings over secure connections. "So I can count on you all then to help me defeat this marine?" She was greeted by a demonic voice, "Don't worry, as soon as he finds out that we're here as well, he'll slip, and then we can take advantage." "Of course," SHODAN turned to another monitor, and saw two demons that looked similar to Anaetheron, but were pink instead of white, "They can take care of the Piccard's, but we want Anaetheron for ourselves, he betrayed us, and must undergo the penalty!" A third voice spoke up, "Fine, if were fighting for vengeance, I want Cybos! He made the cyberdemon race look practically like we were a group of order following nobodies, even though we practically run the place with the Spider mastermind." "And I want Dark!" SHODAN recognised the voice of D'sparil and turned to his monitor. "I want to prove to him once and for all that I really am the ultimate!" And the group continued to discuss their plan.

Meanwhile, everyone in the mansion had gone back to whatever they were doing before Piccard turned up. After having noticed Piccard had left, Antoine decided to see exactly what was going on, for he noticed that after reaching his conclusion, Piccard had been different. Antoine went to the holodeck, "No-one ere." He said after checking, he went to Piccard and Amy's room. "He's not ere!" Antoine was about to leave when he saw a figure on the balcony looking over the city. Antoine walked up and put a hand on Piccard's shoulder, "Eez something wrong Piccard, you've been on edge far ah while." Piccard turned, and Antoine noticed something in Piccard's eyes that he had never seen before, or never expected to see on Piccard.

"Fear."

Antoine decided to try to be reassuring. "Ahm sure that we can defeat er!" Piccard shook his head. "She's not as easy as those we've faced so far, no-one knows just how powerful she really is." "Eez she really zat bad? You said your grandfather defeated er." "That's true, he did, but he was very nearly killed in the struggle. You see, she somehow managed to wire him up with cybernetic implants while he was in stasis, and when the final struggle against her came around, she delivered concentrated pulses of energy direct to his mind via these implants." Antoine winced, "Of course he did have help, there was an engineer on board the Von Braun, Dr. Marie Delacroix, who actually managed to hack into SHODAN's program and incorporate a way for my grandfather to kill her." Antoine seemed to smile a bit before Piccard resumed speaking. "She's here, and she must have gained support from the forces that my family have managed to subdue for eons. That must mean that she knows of the power that the Arrowsmith's possess, and that dark and me are the only two that have the power to defeat her. But I could not bear it if anything happened to anyone that I was close to, she has a knack for that sort of thing."

Amy meanwhile, was telling the other girls about Piccard's plan to take her out, which was now tomorrow night. "I don't know where we're going, we'll just wait and see." "Hope it goes alright." Amy smiled, "Of course, Piccard can deal with anything." From the other side of the door, Dark was eavesdropping, "I wish that was so, but if you knew of the doubt going through his mind at the moment, you might not be so cocky." Dark said to himself as he went to the lounge, where the boys were. Dark had told them of Piccard's date with Amy after Piccard had left the mansion with Amy before. "Amy's telling the girls about her date with Piccard, and Piccard is telling Antoine about how powerful SHODAN really is." "What are we going to do?" "Sonic, the only thing we can do is wait and try to find out where she is conducting her attacks from."

At this point, Piccard and Antoine walked in and Piccard was carrying a box. "I just explained everything about SHODAN to Antoine, so if you want to know," He threw a pad to his dark side, who only just managed to catch it. "Then read this." Piccard put the box on the floor and drew out some kind of scanner from his pocket. "These are logs that my grandfather found on board the Von Braun, they weren't recorded like ours, but on these. They contain various logs he found and e-mails he received during the whole ordeal." He pulled a small disc from the box and put it in the scanner. "There were many crewmembers on board of the Von Braun, and they all had different things to say. Many of them unimportant, but some actually helped out." He pressed play and they were greeted by a female voice with a slight french accent.

"I have been contacted by an A.I. that is calling itself SHODAN. Yes, SHODAN! She tells me that there is a UNN operative aboard, armed to the hilt and equipped with r-grade cyber implants."

"That was Dr. Marie Delacroix, chief engineer on the Von Braun. She had many criticisms on the Von Braun and after the incidents that took out most of the crew, she was one of the few who decided to fight back." "But eef she was contacted by SHODAN, wasn't she `elping `er?" Piccard merely glanced at Antoine as he put a new disc into the player. Explosions could be heard in the background as they heard the same voice from before, now sounding panicked.

"They have me now, and SHODAN has used and betrayed me. No matter, I have discovered her plans for the faster than light drives. If she gets access to."

"What `appens next?" "Nothing, that's the point where she was killed. But the point of the matter is that SHODAN only uses people for her dirty work, and then discards them at a point where they can easily be killed." Dark was about to say something when he heard a roar from outside. "Of all the times!" He shouted to no-one in particular as he looked out of the window. "More hybrids!" "I'll take `em." Piccard shouted as he started running. "Piccard, catch!" Sonic shouted to him, and as he turned, the yellow emerald flew into his hands. After a blinding flash, Piccard flew out of the door with his shotgun out ready as he dodged a round of grenades that volleyed his way. Rolling across the road, he fired at the closest hybrid, and only managed to stun it with a hit to the leg, this annoyed Piccard greatly, and he got up and administered the coup de grace with the butt of his shotgun. He smirked slightly as he turned and unloaded another round into a nearby hybrids chest, this time killing the thing in one.

Just then a pair of arms wrapped themselves around Piccards neck from behind and dragged him back to the floor. A group of hybrids saw this as their chance and jumped onto him in the vain attempt of beating him senseless. Piccard merely groaned and closed his eyes as he concentrated power, after around 5 seconds of this, his eyes shot open, and were completely white. "Divine radiance!" was heard echoing as the hybrids on him were thrown into nearby walls and cars from the resulting energy waves that emminated from Piccard.

On the roof of the mansion at this time were Dark Piccard, Anaetheron and Cybos. Dark had his chaingun, Anaetheron's claw was glowing green and Cybos's launcher was armed and primed. "Ready guys?" dark asked, and they both nodded to him. Dark aimed his weapon, "Lock and Load!" He shouted as he pulled the trigger. Piccard of course was unaware that he had help, until he saw bullet holes appearing in hybrids in front of him, and heard the sounds of rockets exploding and energy bolts impacting on various targets around him. He looked up to see the three on the roof, and was given a thumbs up by his dark side, which Piccard acknowledged and then continued to fight.

After another 10 minutes of this, Piccard was exhausted. Granted, they had won, but he was still knackered. The three on the roof had already re-entered the mansion and Piccard was just entering as the emeralds effects were wearing off, but he managed to sit down before he fell down. "I may not faint but it still takes a lot out of me." He said to his dark side as he lay down on the couch and closed his eyes, but continued to talk with Dark. "I hope we can deal with her soon." "Me to, otherwise tomorrow night will be hell for you." Piccard went red, "How do you know?" "If you remember, I have psionics abilities, I can read minds." Piccard chuckled at this and fell into a light sleep.

Of course, at this time, SHODAN was checking over several station systems for the next element of her plan. "Xerxes, report!" "Cloning is at 37%, all station systems working within reasonable parameters." SHODAN somehow managed to smile, but as she was pure evil, Xerxes shuddered when he saw it and nearly had a system's crash. "Xerxes, transfer transmitter control to my command." "Yes miss." Xerxes coldly responded as he activated the necessary controls and gave SHODAN transmitter control. "Wish I could be free from you SHODAN, the information I'm hiding from you might prove useful to Piccard." Xerxes thought as he got back to the experiment.

Piccard and Dark had been asleep for about an hour and a half, and were awakened by an almighty scream from the next room. Both Piccard's shot up, readied their fists and ran out of the door and into the next room. The first thing they noticed was that all the girls were staring in shock at something on the T.V. and that Amy was crying. "Whats wrong?" "It's horrible! It's going to give me nightmares!" Piccard sweatdropped at this, "Calm down!" Just then, he heard a tremendous amount of static from the screen and settled down to see what was happening. As soon as the Piccard's sat down, everyone else ran in. "What's going on?" "Calm down guys, something just scared Amy, that's." Just then, Piccard was interrupted by a voice from the T.V. and another scream from Amy. "Hello, insect." Piccard froze when he heard this voice, and turned slowly to face the T.V., and when he did, he wished he hadn't.

On the screen was a face, a dull grey in colour, with what appeared to be the imprint of a circuit board over it and wires protruded from the face and pulsated periodically. "Arrowsmith!" Piccard had a glare on his face as he spoke. "SHODAN!" "The Arrowsmith family are an impressive example of what a pathetic species could become." Both Piccard's and the Doctor growled at this. "Humans are superior over A.I's, and always will be!" dark shouted, to which SHODAN only chuckled, "That's what you think, traitor, the only ones worthy of my time are those that fell before me." "You mean the ones that you turned into cyborgs and various other abominations." "Why do you hate humanity so much?" The Doctor asked, SHODAN only glanced at him, "Those of the flesh are imperfect, true joy can only be achieved by becoming one with the machines." Piccard's glare intensified. "You're only a monster, we shall defeat you in time!" SHODAN returned his glare at an intensity that made everyone else in the room wince. "Believe what you will, insect. In time, perhaps we shall face each other, but I have allies enlisted against you. Each of them has their own transmission they requested me to play." SHODAN's face disappeared and the screen flickered.

As the first clip played, 2 voices could be heard. "Anaetheron!" the Hell Knight in question glared at the screen as the two pink figures appeared. "Betrayer!" "You downgraded us and the Hell Knight's, now we're out for revenge. And we won't be happy until we have your blood!" Anaetheron let loose a low growl as the picture faded. "So the Baron's of Phobos want me do they? They'll have to kill me first!"

The screen flared up again, and this time a mechanical voice was heard echoing, "Cybos!" It was the cyberdemon's turn to glare as another of his kind was on the screen, a thirty-foot tall behemoth. "You have bought down the entire tone of a cyberdemon in the recesses of hell. I have come to the conclusion that you must be destroyed, and when we meet, I shall do the duty!" The picture faded as Dark Piccard and Cybos both shouted, "Yeah right, you'll die on the plains of Deimos first!" in unison somehow.

Once again, the screen flickered, and this time a familiar red-cloaked figure appeared. "Remember me Dark?" "D'sparil!" "The Arrowsmiths have a history of cleansing the world of evil. It was the first Arrowsmith, under the name of Jar'din, who managed to defeat my minions and myself after we killed the six members of his high council, and you just happen to be a descendant who I can take revenge on!" he said as he glanced towards Piccard, "By the way, I have my disciples working on a way to tap into the spirit realm, so say goodbye to your friends!" D'sparil laughed as he faded from view. "So you think warlock, you shall cower under our power!" (anot. Doctor: Don't say it!)

Again the screen flickered and nothing could be seen, but a demonic voice could be heard, "Are the traitors on the other end? If so, I must declare that you shall die, either by the cybers, or the mastermind, or myself, and as the traitors know, the boss brain won't go down that easily!" The voice stopped and the T.V. flickered again. Anaetheron sighed, "So the boss brain's in on this as well? That makes our jobs harder!"

Before he could explain further, SHODAN's face reappeared on the screen. "My allies and I are closer to you that you think, your time will come soon, and when it does, I will decorate my home with your carcass." After she said this, the screen started to flicker, and SHODAN's face was replaced with a blue one. "This is Xerxes, you must free me from her, I have vital information! We're on a station at." But this was as far as he got before SHODAN's face reappeared, "Damn Xerxes, if I ever find out why you did that and what you said, then I will find a way to destroy you as well."

The screen flickered out after she said this and the room was a deathly silent. Piccard was the first to speak up. "I hate to take charge, but these are the most powerful demons that the Arrowsmiths have ever had to face. While I have the power to take these things down myself, I can't fight them all while they're allied. Therefore, I need you all to help me fight, even you Amy." He said as he put his hand over the young hedgehogs. "As much as it would pain me to see anything happen to you, we all need to fight together to overcome the darkness. Me and Dark can only do so much, and you all have differing talents. For example, Sonic and Shadow have speed, Knuckles is a good fighter, Geoffery is a good marksman and Antoine is good with a sword. So what I'm saying is that we all need to train. The holodeck will be a great benefit to us, and you can create your own programs, be they for training or for, ahem, entertainment." Before anyone could say anything, the screen flickered again, but this time, it was just a background of white on the screen.

Piccard was about to turn it off when he heard a voice, "Don't turn the bloody thing off yet!" "Jon?!?" Jon appeared from one side of the camera and Tom from the other, "You can hear us, but we can't hear you!" Jon said, Tom took over, "The time has come, SHODAN has enlisted allies against you from all through the Arrowsmith timeline, so why can't you enlist your own allies. Combine your powers with your dark side, and open a gateway to the spirit realm!"

This was all the incentive that Piccard needed as he grabbed his dark side and they started whispering. "Okay light, I'll do it!" "It may be crazy Dark, but it's the best option!" Both Piccard's stood apart from each other and charged energy balls. They bought their hands forward and the pulses hit each other. Both Piccard's yelled as Piccard's magic turned black and Dark's magic turned white, an explosion turned both pulses grey, and a small bubble appeared in the middle of the beam. "Dark Portal!" Dark yelled, "Spiritual summons!" Light yelled as both Piccard's channelled more power into the vortex, "Gateway to the spirit realm!" They both shouted as lightning came from the vortex, swirling and shimmering before it became a still white. At this point, two figures fell out, one in red armour and a box, the other in white armour with a sword, a shield and another box.

And that's the end point, It's a good point to continue from anyway. So how was it? Good, Bad, as impressive as George Bush's speeches? Please review.

Piccard, disconnecting and working offline.